Americans Kidnapped

Here's a sampling of reports about criminal activity this past week along the U.S.-Mexican border.

(Columbus, New Mexico) On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and New Mexico law officers broke up a large-scale, heroin trafficking ring in the border town of Columbus. Four people were arrested and more than a pound of Mexican black tar heroin was seized.

In custody are Ruben Ledezma, 72, a legal permanent resident, Macrina Quinones, 44, a U.S. citizen, and two suspects of unknown nationality, Christina Salcido, 23, and Angel Sanchez, 30.

Officials stated that the purity and availability of the Mexican heroin is increasing as the market expands and the business matures. Over time, one can expect the Mexican heroin producers to attain a purity level where the product is no longer black in color and, thereby, make their heroin more attractive to picky junkies.

(Rio Grande City, Texas) Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents along with a Starr County drug task force were tipped to suspected drug activity and found almost nine tons of marijuana in hidden bunkers. The street value of the dope is estimated at eight million dollars.

(Falfurrias, Texas) Earlier this week, a drug sniffer dog alerted on a tractor-trailer rig at the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint. Hidden within a cargo of fine Mexican limes, Border Patrol agents found an estimated five thousand pounds of marijuana with a street value of more than four million dollars.

(Tijuana, Mexico) Another Tijuana police chief was murdered last Tuesday, the fourth this year. A total of twelve Tijuana policemen have been murdered so far in 2006.

Police Chief Gerardo Santiago Prado, bodyguard Officer Hector Javier Inzunza, and secretary Nancy Gomez Teran were riddled with bullets when three vehicles cut off their police car and several gunmen began firing. The murders are tied to a wave of violence between warring drug gangs.

(Laredo, Texas) Last weekend, dozens of armed men stormed a deer-hunting ranch northwest of Laredo on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande and kidnapped three Texans. Laredo businessman Librado Pina Junior, his 25-year-old son, Librado Pina III, and 45-year-old David Mueller were taken.

Also abducted were Mexican businessman Fidel Rodriguez Cerdan and ranch cook Marcos Ortiz. On Wednesday, Mueller and Cerdan were released.

According to the FBI, the kidnappings are tied to increasing violence and lawlessness from drug cartels warring for supremacy over control of smuggling routes into the U.S.

In the last two years, 60 Americans have been kidnapped in the Laredo area.

Sixty Americans kidnapped! One would imagine that it should be a bigger story. Apparently, the news hasn't reached the mainstream media yet. Surely, CNN, NBC and FoxNews will jump all over the story of 60 kidnapped Americans just like they did with the Natalie Holloway disappearance. Or ... maybe not.